Terra Chalberg

After graduating from UCLA and working in film development, Terra Chalberg began her publishing career in 2002 at Scribner. Later, at Simon & Schuster and Simon Spotlight Entertainment (now Gallery), she edited and acquired a diverse list of projects.

As an agent, she represents a range of fiction and nonfiction writers, including Allison Amend, finalist for the Sami Rohr Prize for Jewish Literature and author of Enchanted Islands; Elise Blackwell, author of The Lower Quarter; Victoria Fedden, author of This Is Not My Beautiful Life; Margaux Fragoso, author of the New York Times and international bestseller Tiger, Tiger; Elizabeth Isadora Gold, author of The Mommy Group; Lori Ostlund, author of Barnes & Noble Discover selection, finalist for the Center for Fiction First Novel Prize, Ferro-Grumley Award nominee After the Parade, and recipient of a Rona Jaffe Award, Flannery O'Connor Award, Edmund White Award, California Book Award, and O. Henry Prize; Andrew Porter, Flannery O'Connor Award-winner and author of the Barnes & Noble Discover selection and Indie Next List pick In Between Days; Melissa Radke, author of Eat Cake. Be Brave.; Glenn Taylor, NBCC Award Finalist in Fiction and author of A Hanging at Cinder Bottom; and Sara Zaske, author of Achtung Baby.

To query Terra, please email terra@chalbergsussman.com, and include a description of the project, your author bio, and the first five pages (if fiction or narrative nonfiction) in the body of the email.

Rachel Sussman

A graduate of Brown University, Rachel Sussman worked as an editor at Scribner and as an agent with Zachary Shuster Harmsworth before co-founding Chalberg & Sussman. She represents a wide range of nonfiction—narrative, memoir, psychology, history, lifestyle, and pop culture—and a select list of literary fiction.

Rachel’s clients run the gamut from self-proclaimed mediocre mother Karen Alpert, author of the New York Times bestseller I Heart My Little A-Holes, and DIY experts Sherry and John Petersik, authors of the New York Times bestseller Young House Love, to journalists Mary Papenfuss, author of American Huckster: How Chuck Blazer Got Rich From—and Sold Out—The Most Powerful Cabal in World Sports, and Linda Hervieux, author of Forgotten: The Untold Story of the Only African-American Combat Unit at D-Day.

Rachel is proud to represent a range of memoirists including Matt Logelin, author of the New York Times bestseller Two Kisses for Maddy; Jennifer Ridha, author of Criminal That I Am; Tracy Slater, author of the Barnes & Noble Discover Great New Writers selection The Good Shufu; Ginger Sprouse, author of the forthcoming Kinda Like Grace; and Stephanie Wittels Wachs, author of Everything is Horrible and Wonderful. She also enjoys developing “big think” books like Some We Love, Some We Hate, Some We Eat: Why It's So Hard to Think Straight about Animals bypsychology professor Hal Herzog, and A Big Fat Crisis: The Hidden Forces Behind the Obesity Epidemic and How We Can End It by Deborah Cohen, MD. Her list of fiction writers includes Tiffany Hawk, author of Love Me Anyway, and Kristin Waterfield Duisberg, author of The Good Patient and After.

Nicole James

Nicole James joined Chalberg & Sussman as an agent in December 2013. Previously she was the Foreign Rights Director as well as an agent at The Aaron Priest Agency, where she sold international and New York Times bestselling and brand name authors including David Baldacci, Robert Crais, Greg Iles, and Philip Caputo.

Primarily focused on commercial fiction and nonfiction, Nicole is drawn to plot-driven novels with relatable characters and addictive pacing—whether she's reading a white-knuckle thriller, a breezy beach read, an intense family drama, or a thoughtful young adult novel. Nicole is always on the lookout for psychological suspense, upmarket women’s fiction in the vein of Emily Giffin or J. Courtney Sullivan, and thrillers. On the nonfiction side, Nicole enjoys uplifting female-driven memoir, upmarket self-help (like The Happiness Project), and hip lifestyle books (like Amy Sedaris's I Like You: Hospitality Under the Influence).

Her clients include the thriller authors Jorgen Brekke, a #1 international bestseller, and Ben Coes, New York Times bestselling author of the Dewey Andreas series, along with young adult authors such as Diana Harmon Asher, author of Sidetracked, Nick Burd, winner of The American Library Association's Stonewall Book Award for The Vast Fields of Ordinary; Johan Harstad, author of 172 Hours on the Moon; and Arne Svingen, winner of the Norwegian Ministry of Culture’s Best Young Adult Literature Prize for The Ballad of a Broken Nose. Nicole also represents select nonfiction, including the memoir A Life Everlasting: The Extraordinary Gift of Thomas Ethan Gray by Sarah Gray, as well as dog celebrity and social media star Manny the Frenchie's Art of Happiness.

Raised on a steady diet of Holly Black & Philip Pullman, Jennifer Grimaldi (formerly Jennifer Letwack) has always gravitated toward otherworldly, fantastical novels that reflect our own world’s past and present. At St. Martin’s Press/Thomas Dunne, she edited and acquired S. Jae-Jones’ New York Times bestseller WINTERSONG—a Labyrinth-inspired gothic YA—and worked with numerous bestselling and award-winning authors such as Kate Forsyth. Jennifer’s broad exposure to the domestic and foreign publishing markets as a scout with Barbara Tolley & Associates further shaped her taste for the eclectic.

Now an agent with Chalberg & Sussman, where she first started her publishing career in 2012, Jennifer is building a list of historicals, romance, horror, and YA & adult sci-fi and fantasy.

Although the titles on her shelves have changed over the years, the content has not: they are still stuffed with magic and spaceships, fairytales and faraway lands. Across all genres, Jennifer loves strong, voice-driven novels, dark and romantic themes, and books that make her think—and learn. She is particularly excited by books that explore gender and sexuality, especially those with diverse, LGBTA+ leads, and own-voice writers.

Aspects sure to delight her include: cities and urban-planning, anecdotal histories, that trope where there were supposed to be two rooms at the hotel but they’re all booked up so the leads have to share, spies, thieves, mythological retellings, witches just trying to get by, weird obsessions, and puns.

To query Jennifer, please email jennifer@chalbergsussman.com and include the first five pages of your manuscript in the body of an email. Jennifer accepts queries by email only.